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KNOWLEDGE: DEFINITIONS

Knowledge is information of which a person, organization or other entity is aware.  There is a distinction to be drawn between descriptive or propositional knowledge or theoretical reason (knowing that, for example, 1 + 1 = 2) and practical reason (knowing how, for example, to add).  This topic addresses questions such as: "Do you really know what you think you know?" and, if so, "How do you know what you know?"  Much of the debate in this field has focused on analyzing the nature of knowledge, the nature of justification, and how it relates to similar notions such as truth, and belief.  Epistemologists analyze the standards of justification for knowledge claims, that is, the grounds on which one can claim to know a particular fact. 

ACQUISITION

Knowledge is acquired in many ways, not least through experience, reasoning, and tradition (i.e. the testimony of certain respected authorities).  

Empiricism refers to the view that the senses are the main source and criterion of knowledge.  Externalism is the view that factors 'external' to or outside of the psychological states of knowers are the source of knowledge.  A Posteriori knowledge is information derived from observing the world or interacting with it in some way (i.e., it is the product of one's experiences).  

Rationalism refers to the view that it is the knower's reason which is the main source and criterion of knowledge.  Internalism stipulates that the factors responsible for the production of knowledge are located within the knower's psychological states.  A priori knowledge is information known independent of or prior to experience.

JUSTIFICATION

Plato famously defined knowledge as 'justified true belief.'  A belief is a claim that some state of affairs is true.  Justification refers to the process by which some beliefs are demonstrated to be true.  Foundationalism refers to the view that some basic beliefs do not need justification because their truth is self-evident.  A First Principle is a basic, foundational proposition or assumption that cannot be deduced from any other proposition or assumption.  Skepticism refers to the doubt that one can ever attain true knowledge.  Verificationism is the view that the truth may be established through a process of verification. 

Truth is demonstrated in several ways. 

According to the Coherence Theory, the truth of a claim results from its coherence with other specified sentences, propositions or beliefs.  From this perspective, truth is primarily a property of a whole systems of propositions and can be ascribed to individual propositions only derivatively according to their coherence with the whole. 

The Consensus Theory holds that truth is whatever is agreed upon, or in some versions, might come to be agreed upon, by some specified group.  Such a group might include all human beings, or a subset thereof consisting of more than one person. 

The Correspondence Theory of truth refers to the view that a claim (for example, a proposition or statement or sentence) is rendered true by the existence of a fact with corresponding elements and a similar structure.  From this perspective, the truth or falsity of a statement is determined only by whether it accurately describes (i.e., corresponds with) that world. 

According to the Pragmatic Theory of Truth, truth is verified and confirmed by the results of putting one's concepts into practice.

Absolute truths are statements or propositions that are taken to be true for all cultures and all eras.  Objectivism holds that truths are independent of our subjective beliefs.  Except for propositions that are actually about our beliefs or sensations, what is true or false is independent of what we think is true or false.  Realism is that what you know about an object exists independently of your mind.  It opposes epistemological idealism.   

Constructivism is the view that views all of our knowledge as 'constructed,' i.e. it does not necessarily reflect any external 'transcendent' realities but is, rather, contingent upon convention, human perception, and social experience.  In other words, knowledge is not objective but, rather, a function of subjective factors.  Social Constructionism is the view, derived from Hegel and developed by Durkheim, that all knowledge is 'constructed,' that is, not necessarily reflective of external reality.  Knowledge is, rather, to at least some degree contingent upon paradigms inherited from social experience and conventional practice.  A Social Construct is an idea which may appear to be natural and obvious to those who accept it, but in reality is an invention or artifact of a particular culture or society.  Perspectivism is the view that there are many possible conceptual schemes, or perspectives (which are adopted by default, whether we are aware or not) which determine any possible judgment of truth or value that we may make.  This implies that no way of seeing the world is more correct than its rivals.  Relativism is the view that statements or propositions are true only in relation to some standard, convention, or point-of-view, such as that of one's own culture.  In short, according to perspectivism and relativism, a proposition is only true relative to a particular perspective.  Subjectivism accords primacy to the subjective point of view as the fundamental measure of all experience.  In an extreme form, it may hold that the nature and existence of every object depends solely on someone's subjective awareness of it.  A Worldview is a term calqued from the German Weltanschauung meaning a 'look onto the world' (literally, 'wide worldview' or 'wide world perception').  It refers to the framework of ideas and beliefs through which an individual or a community interprets the world.   This worldview is a function of the language of the people in question, to be precise, its syntactic structures and untranslatable connotations and its denotations.

APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF KNOWLEDGE

Epistemology (from the Greek episteme [knowledge] and logos [word, speech or study]) or Philosophy of Knowledge refers to the use of logical and scientific methods to explain the nature, origin, and scope of knowledge.  Method or Methodology refers to the rationale and the philosophical assumptions that inform a particular procedure for the production of knowledge.  More specifically, it is (1) a body of methods, rules, and postulates employed by a discipline or field of inquiry; (2) a particular procedure or set of procedures; and / or (3) the analysis of the principles or procedures of inquiry in a particular field. 

I use the term Theory of Knowledge to refer to approaches that emphasise the socio-historical context and rhetoric of knowledge production in all its forms.

The History of Ideas deals with the expression, preservation, and change of ideas over time.  Intellectual History is sometimes used as a synonym for the History of Ideas while it sometimes refers to the history of the people who create, discuss, write about and in other ways propagate ideas (i.e. history of intellectuals and the socio-historical contexts in which they live).  It assumes that ideas do not change in isolation from the people who create and use them and that one must study the culture, lives and environments of people to understand their notions and ideas. 

Rhetoric of Inquiry refers to the view that the production of knowledge is unavoidably shaped by the rhetorical structures of the discourses employed.  The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry at the University of Iowa views the rhetoric of inquiry as the study of how scholarship and professional discourse are conducted through argument, how paradigms of knowledge are sensitive to social-political contexts, and how the presentation of scholarly and professional findings is an audience-sensitive process.

The Sociology of Knowledge is the study of the relationship between human thought and the social and historical context within which it arises, and of the effects prevailing ideas have on societies.  

PHILWEB was last updated:
June 07, 2010

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Richard L. W. Clarke

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